Bigfoot “Captured” in Maine!

Portland, Maine: Aug 2, 2004 The elusive eight-and-a-half ft tall, 300 pound “Crookston Bigfoot” has been bagged and permanently added to the collection of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland. Loren Coleman, author of Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America (2003), says: “It wasn’t easy tracking it down, which of course is pretty typical of anything to do with Sasquatch.” Coleman finally found the giant “carcass” in a warehouse in the Minneapolis area, and made arrangements for its trip East.

The history of the beast begins in 1990, in Wisconsin. Badger State taxidermist and artist Curtis Christensen had an idea he’d like to create a Bigfoot model because of his interest in the unknown hairy creatures. So he fashioned the world’s most unique Bigfoot in existence. It stood in his barn for a few years.

Then in June 1995, Crookston, Minnesota, based on a series of local sightings, declared itself the “Bigfoot Capital of the World.” Soon, Wisconsin taxidermist Christensen contacted the executive director of the Crookston Development Authority to see if they would like to obtain his Bigfoot to go with their new worldwide fame. A local eating establishment, RBJ’s Restaurant in Crookston, had become the focal point of interest when someone had the idea to start a Bigfoot “museum.” Hundreds of baby Bigfoot dolls went on sale, and the annual Ox Cart Days parade featured two Bigfoot floats. A local convenience store sold bumper stickers that said: “Crookston, Minnesota: The Bigfoot Capital of the World.”

Before long, the town of Crookston and RBJ’s Restaurant had their Bigfoot. A display next to the Bigfoot model showed photographs of the early spring, 1981, Bigfoot tracks found in a cow pasture, near Gentilly bridge over the Red River, on County Road 11, just outside Crookston.

For almost a decade, the Crookston Bigfoot stood in RBJ’s and pictures were snapped by locals and a few passing tourists. The show “Sightings” even came around, and there were rumors Ripley’s Believe It or Not was interested too.

But then it disappeared. While the Crookston Bigfoot was a hit, the Bigfoot museum never got off the ground in isolated Crookston. No throng of tourists stopped by Crookston. The desire to have the Crookston Bigfoot establish its own identity, and be called, as the local newspaper wrote, the “Plains Bigfoot or the Field Running Bigfoot,” never caught on.

After a few years of searching, most recently for the Wisconsin taxidermist creator too, author Loren Coleman found that a tool company in Minneapolis obtained the Bigfoot and had been displaying it successfully. The owner of the corporation told Coleman: “I was always fascinated with Bigfoot growing up and when I saw this I couldn’t resist. We’ve taken it to trade shows and people got their photo with him. People love it and it creates such a memory.” Most of the time, however, the Crookston Bigfoot was in a Minneapolis warehouse, and the time had come for it to find a more permanent home, the International Cryptozoology Museum in Maine.

So Coleman, just a few weeks ago, made arrangements for the Crookston Bigfoot’s trip to New England. After a safe one week journey, what one television company has called “the best looking Bigfoot replica in existence,” is now housed in a more accessible museum location for Sasquatch scholars to study and fans to see.

{Photo above is of the Crookston Bigfoot compared to a six foot man.}

Loren Coleman and the Crookston Bigfoot, Summer 2005Copyright by Joseph Citro,from his book Weird New England (2005)